The Grand Army of the Republic is not a faction of villains. The clone troopers of the Galactic Republic are professional soldiers — grown on Kamino from the genome of Jango Fett, accelerated to maturity, and conditioned for discipline, marksmanship, and loyalty — and across most of the Clone Wars they are the closest thing the galaxy has to the good guys. In SWURPG they belong in your bestiary not because they're enemies, but because a GM needs stat blocks for the soldiers fighting beside the party as often as against it.
That dual nature is the whole point of the faction. A clone squad can be the reinforcements that arrive when the party is pinned down, the garrison the heroes have to talk their way past, the special-ops pod running the same mission from the other direction — or, after Order 66, the men who turn their rifles on the Jedi they would have died for an hour earlier. Decide where your campaign sits on that timeline and the Republic becomes allies, neutrals, or the most heartbreaking enemy in the game.
What Counts as "Galactic Republic"?
The faction is built around the clone trooper and his specialist variants, plus the Jedi who command them:
- Line & Support: clone troopers, ARF scouts, sharpshooters, Z-6 heavies, medics, and pilots — the backbone of any GAR force.
- Security: Coruscant Guard shock troopers — military police, riot control, and prisoner escort on the capital.
- Elite: clone commandos in Katarn armor and Advanced Recon Commandos (ARC troopers) — the special forces who do the impossible jobs.
- Command: clone commanders who run battalions and legions, and the Jedi Generals who lead them from the front.
How the Republic Fights
Clones fight as a system, not as individuals. Even a basic trooper is built around Squad Tactics — he gains advantage when a brother flanks the target — so a fire team is far more than the sum of its rifles. They take cover, bound forward by elements, throw grenades to flush entrenched targets, and focus the most dangerous threat. Layer in a sergeant or commander and the unit gains command auras, coordinated fire, and the ability to move a beat ahead of the enemy. Put a Jedi General at the tip and the whole formation becomes nearly unstoppable.
Republic Encounter Themes (GM Gold)
- Allies Under Fire: the heroes fight with a clone squad — hold the LZ, escort the medic, keep the general alive. Bonds formed here make a later betrayal devastating.
- Combined Arms: infantry on the ground, a gunship overhead, a sharpshooter on the ridge. The Republic rarely brings just one thing.
- Command Multiplier: a handful of low-TR clones become genuinely dangerous under a commander's aura — drop the officer and the squad's coordination collapses.
- The Order 66 Turn: the single most powerful story this faction tells. The soldiers don't change; only their orders do. Play the horror straight.
- Occupation & Authority: checkpoints, curfews, arrests, and the moral weight of soldiers told to point their blasters at civilians.
Threat Rating (TR) in Republic Encounters
As with all disciplined troops, coordination is the hidden multiplier: a few low-TR clones holding a chokepoint under an officer's command aura are far nastier than their TR suggests. Use TR to set the baseline, then let command auras and combined arms make the Republic feel like a real army.
TR Bands (Republic Examples)
- TR 1 — line clone troopers: disciplined, coordinated, dangerous in numbers.
- TR 2–3 — specialists: ARF scouts, sharpshooters, Z-6 heavies, medics, pilots, shock troopers.
- TR 4–5 — elite special forces: clone commandos and ARC troopers.
- TR 6 — clone commanders: force multipliers who run the whole battle.
- TR 7–8 — Jedi Generals: legion commanders and front-line duelists who can turn a battle alone.
Current roster breakdown: 1-2: 4 | 3-5: 5 | 6+: 2